Moshe Ya'alon, the hardline Israeli defence minister, says there will be no
peace agreement with the Palestinians in his lifetime

A senior Israeliminister has predicted there will be no peace agreement with the Palestinians in his lifetime as Mahmoud Abbas flies to Washington to meet Barack Obama.

Moshe Ya'alon, the hardline Israeli defence minister, said Mr Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president was not "a partner for a permanent agreement" in a wide-ranging television interview.

He challenged the commonly-held notion that the Palestinians lived under occupation and asserted that they had "political independence".

"He's a partner for receiving, not a partner for giving," Mr Ya'alon, a close ally of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, told Channel 2's Meet The Press, referring to Mr Abbas.

"He isn't a partner for a permanent agreement, at the end of which there is recognition of the right of the State of Israel to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people, which is the end of the conflict and an end of demands."

"I'm sorry to come to this conclusion, but this (peace agreement) will not happen in my time," Mr Ya'alon continued.

The defence minister's comments reflected his well-known scepticism towards the peace process but were also indicative of a growing pessimism on all sides about the outcome of talks whose nine-month time frame is due to expire next month.

Mr Abbas will visit the White House on Monday, two weeks after Mr Netanyahu met Mr Obama there. The US president pledged then to seek "difficult decisions" from Mr Abbas when the pair met.

Nabil Abu Rdeineh, Mr Abbas's spokesman, said the two men would discuss all aspects of a two-state solution that envisages Israel alongside a sovereign independent Palestine.

Mr Abbas is expected to reiterate his refusal to recognise Israel as a specifically Jewish state – a demand Mr Netanyahu has pushed to the forefront of his conditions for a comprehensive peace deal.

The Palestinian leader insists such a concession would mean conceding the "right of return" of refugees from 1948 to go back to their homes in present-day Israel. Israeli leaders say there will be no deal without Jewish state recognition.

Significantly, John Kerry, the US secretary of state – who has brokered the talks – criticised Israel's stance last week while appearing before the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee on Capitol Hill. "I think it's a mistake for some people to be raising it [recognition as a Jewish state] again and again as the critical decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we've obviously made that clear," he said.

In separate remarks that contrasted with earlier upbeat forecasts, Mr Kerry also acknowledged a chasm of mistrust between the two sides. "The level of mistrust is as large as any level of mistrust I've ever seen," he said. "Neither believes that ... the other is prepared to make some of the big choices that have to be made here."